Will ou Pay to send Email Through AOL?

[WebzPro]

Well it seems that's where it is going. AOL, remember those guys that back in the day sold their client emails for what they called advertising, is now planning to charge to send email to their customers.

There is a fairly good article here on it http://www.circleid.com/posts/califo...oodmail_email/

There is also a group here http://www.dearaol.com/ of over 500 groups with public letter asking AOL to reconsider.

What are your thoughts? Will this really cut down on spams and scams? Not sure.

This information is from a link at AOL explaining cost. What they are saying is that this is geared towards bulk mailers, but what the catch is that I think this is a cost per IP.

How Much Will It Cost?

The accreditation application processing fee is regularly $399.00. A special charter price of $199.00 will apply to all applications submitted by July 31, 2006. The accreditation application fee is non-refundable. Please review the Accreditation Criteria before beginning your application.

The application fee is non-refundable, they decide you don’t fit the bill you loose the money.

Now here is the catch. You have to have an IP based in the US or Canada. That will severely hurt legitimate international businesses. Here are some guidelines.

- have at least 1 year of business history, as verified by a commercial identity vendor;
- have business headquarters located in the United States or Canada;
- transmit messages from dedicated IP addresses, even if sending email through an email service provider (ESP);
- if transmitting through an ESP, that ESP must have implemented the Goodmail Imprinter capability for sending CertifiedEmail;
- have a sending history which indicates that their IP addresses register in the top quartile of senders with our ISP partners;
- be able to comply with Goodmail's Acceptable Use and Security Policy and sign a Token Purchase Agreement.

Stopping spam and scams should be a top priority, but after doing a little research on this AOL, stands to make out like a bandit.

Well, how do you see it??
__________________

[Ferre]

All I hear about AOL is that this company sucks big time anyway.

Avoid them, anyone can get a free email address.

[BingoBalls]

Originally Posted by Ferre

[color="DarkGreen"]All I hear about AOL is that this company sucks big time anyway.

Yeah big time!! I get at least 3 calls per week from their telemarketers and get approx 3 AOL install discs a week in the post.

Their idea on charging for sending emails is not a fight against spam but more of a money spinner. Saying its a fight against spam just makes it look good.

[Zap]

Depending on how this plays out, AOL may be able to foist that cost onto it's users, or (worse yet) the rest of us.

If your ISP decides they want to send mail to AOL, they may pay a fee and pass that cost on to you. It sucks, but I think it's possible.

[BingoBalls]

Originally Posted by Zap

If your ISP decides they want to send mail to AOL, they may pay a fee and pass that cost on to you.

For me I would simply remove any AOL email address's from my contacts, I am not paying money to a company just because I sent one of their users an email. I would think I wouldn’t be the only and as soon as AOL users stop getting emails from their contacts they will simply close their account and join up with gmail or the likes to start getting emails again.

I hope AOL do decide in doing this and end up with egg on their face, that’s what happens when one gets too greedy.

[WebzPro]

You might find these of interest. Original got cut off.

http://www.circleid.com/posts/aol_an...ack_for_email/

http://www.circleid.com/posts/califo...oodmail_email/

[Zap]

Originally Posted by BingoBalls

For me I would simply remove any AOL email address's from my contacts, I am not paying money to a company just because I sent one of their users an email.

That may not be enough. Your ISP may decide that they want to have the ability to send mail to the AOL domain. If that happens, it won't matter if you as an individual send to AOL addresses or not. Your ISP will calculate the cost per year of sending mail to AOL and spread those costs out over twelve months and then increase the monthly bill to all of it's customers to pay for it (that means YOU).

Consumers quite often don't get a say in these matters.

[BingoBalls]

Originally Posted by Zap

That may not be enough.

I think you may have read my post differently.

Im not a AOL user and if they start this scam then I am not going to send any emails to the AOL domain.

I would simply boycott their services, pages and even users so how can they charge me for not using their service?


WebzPro thanks for the links, interesting read.

[Zap]

Originally Posted by BingoBalls

I think you may have read my post differently.

Im not a AOL user and if they start this scam then I am not going to send any emails to the AOL domain.

I would simply boycott their services, pages and even users so how can they charge me for not using their service?


WebzPro thanks for the links, interesting read.

It's all speculation, Bingo, but you don't have to have any dealings with AOL to be charged with it. Example below...

Your ISP is (just as an example) called "Bingo's ISP". AOL says to the company called "Bingo's ISP" that they will have to pay a fee to have e-mail from ALL/ANY of their members delivered to AOL mailboxes. Bingo's ISP says, "Well, we'd rather not pay it, but OK. We want to deal with AOL. So, we'll pay it.". Then, Bingo's ISP says to themselves "We need to recoup the cost of this somehow. We can't afford to pay it.". The next thing you know, your monthly bill from "Bingo's ISP" no longer says $39.99. It says $44.99. They never asked Bingo if he wanted to send mail to AOL. Bingo never sent mail to AOL. But, if Bingo wants internet access, it now costs $44.99 instead of $39.99 per month. It happens all the time.

If you have car insurance, you're paying for other people's accidents.
If you have health insurance, you're paying for other people's hospital bills.
If you pay taxes, you're paying for other people's services.
If you pay service charges at a bank, you're paying for other people's services.

It happens with so many things. The question of whether or not you (as an individual) would like to send mail to AOL will never be asked.

As I said, this is just an example, but this kind of thing happens all the time. You can switch ISPs, but if more and more ISPs jump on board and decide to just pay the fee, it will get harder and harder to find an ISP that doesn't include (hidden or otherwise) charges for AOL.

[BingoBalls]

Bahhh....I see what your saying now, I wasnt looking at the big picture

Nah they are bang out of order pulling this stunt!

[Zap]

Yeah, and, unfortunately, they might just be big enough to actually force other companies (smaller ones) to comply. I hope they fall flat on their face, but only time will tell.

[JuggoPop]

that's it... from now on it if you are going to send an email to me at my domain, please make a $10 paypal payment first. If no payment has been made, then I won't open the email.

[NeO]

"AOL for dummies"


Isn't that an Oxymoron?

[JuggoPop]

oh and there is some info on snopes: http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/emailtax.asp

basicly what I see is instead of blocking spam they are saying if you pay us will let you though our filters. Otherwise, the email goes the same route as now... in the spam folder.

so there are no costs to be passed down to us. spam is spam is spam... so unless your isp is spamming and now wants to pay to avoid the filter, you have nothing to worry about.

[mreigle]

AOL is for retards who need someone to hold their hand to get online.

[pukenerampa]

why will you pay when other offers free? hmmmm